Insight: The Killing Fields

Mounds of the white stuff may still be lingering on city yards, but lawn-care companies are already lining up customers for the coming spring spraying season. While the city is phasing out pesticide use, the gardening sector continues to do a mean business. Here are the biggest purveyors of the bad stuff.

WEEDMAN

Pesticides used: 2,4-D, Mecoprop, Dicamba

Number of households sprayed in the Toronto area per year: roughly 100,000

Average number of times each household is sprayed per year: between 3 and 6

Total amount of pesticides used per year: upwards of 55,000 litres*

Weedman speaks: "The pesticide industry is heavily regulated. We go though about 1,000 litres (of pesticide mixture) for every 50 or 60 clients. But three-quarters of the $100 million that's spent in Canada on pesticides each year is spent by homeowners buying the stuff off the shelf." Mike Kernaghan, chief operating officer

CHEMLAWN

Pesticides used: 2,4-D, Mecoprop, Dicamba, Dimension, Merit, Sevin

Number of households sprayed in Toronto area per year: about 40,000

Average number of times each household is sprayed per year: between 3 and 15

Total amount of pesticides used per year: upwards of 25,000 litres*

Chemlawn speaks: "We don't have any real information to provide you (on adverse effects). I'm not a toxicologist. What most critics don't realize is that very little pesticide actually goes onto lawns. Most of it is water." Gavin Dawson, technical adviser

NUTRILAWN

Pesticides used: 2,4-D, Mecoprop, Dicamba

Number of households sprayed in Toronto area per year: 8,000

Average number of times each household is sprayed per year: 4 or 5

Total amount of pesticides used per year: upwards of 4,000 litres*

Nutrilawn speaks: "I won't comment on the spraying habits of some of the other companies. That's for them to decide. But most of what we spray is fertilizer. I've always wondered why we're not required to report more fully what we spray to the government. We have concerns about the potential for environmental damage if the products are misused. People use them when they don't have to and when alternative means can be found."

Larry Maydonik, president *conservative estimate based on an average 60ml of pesticide concentrate per 90 square metres of greenspace

Number of developmental defects observed among the children of 47,913 Canadian women who work in agriculture: 6

Number of developmental defects that would have been expected in the general population: 1.32

Number of cases of pesticide poisoning reported worldwide in 1994: nearly 500,000

Number of cases of pesticide poisoning reported in the U.S. every year: about 45,000

Length of time pesticides remain in the urine of animals tested for exposure: up to 3 days

THE BIG, BAD PICTURE

Amount of pesticides for household use that ended up in Ontario's waste stream in 86: 5,649 tonnes

Areas in Toronto where 2,4-D has been detected: Lake Ontario, Grenadier Pond, the Humber River, the Don River

Length of time pesticides remain in soil once sprayed: anywhere from 20 to 1,059 days

Number of pesticides used by lawn care companies: about 22

Number of Canadian households that use lawn-care products: more than 500,000

Number of households in Canada: 5 million

Number of lawn-care companies in Canada: about 200

Total value of lawn-care products sold in Canada last year: $100 million

OECD countries that do not collect data on the sale, types and volume of pesticides used: Canada, the Slovak Republic

Sources: Toronto Environmental Alliance, Weedman, Chemlawn, Nutrilawn, City of Toronto pesticides subcommittee report 2000, Report of the Commissioner on the Environment and Sustainable Development 1999, Toronto Public Health Environment Protection Office, Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Canadian Institute for Environmental Law and Policy